Conventional strollers often place children and adult users at risk of nipping or shearing their hands during the process of folding and unfolding the frame of a stroller. This is at least partially due to conventional strollers creating “scissor gaps” between components during folding and unfolding. A stroller which avoids or reduces this risk would therefore be an improvement. Additionally, safety requirements for strollers in the global marketplace have become increasingly stringent. Many recently-enacted requirements prohibit strollers which nip or shear hands while folding or unfolding the frame.
FIG. 1 illustrates a foldable stroller according to the prior art. Such a stroller is foldable by turning a handgrip 104 toward a front tube 103. The stroller has an elongated folding joint 105 with an upper pivot point 101 at the upper end and a lower pivot point 106 at the lower end. A rear tube 107 is connected with folding joint 105 at lower pivot point 106. The front tube 103 is connected with folding joint 105 at upper pivot point 101. The handgrip 104 is not attached to any pivot point, but is connected with the folding joint 105. The opposite ends of a connecting rod 108 respectively pivot, causing the front tube and the rear tube to come together. When the handgrip 104 turns and rotates toward the front tube 103 to fold the frame, the folding joint 105 rotates about the upper pivot point 101 where it is connected to the front tube 103. At the same time, the lower end of the folding joint 105 rotates about the lower pivot point 106, where it is connected to the rear tube 107, and the rear tube 107 tilts up. The connecting rod 108 pulls the rear tube 107 to rotate about the lower pivot point 106 at the lower end of the folding joint 105, so that the rear tube 107 approaches the front tube 103, synchronously achieving the function of folding the frame in such a manner that the handgrip 104 approaches the front tube, and the rear tube 107 approaches the front tube 103.
The stroller shown in FIG. 1 creates considerable hand nipping and shearing gaps during folding and unfolding of the frame. These gaps cause safety risks to children and adult users, especially due to a large “scissor gap” between the lower end of the folding joint and the front tube when the frame is unfolded, and additional “scissor gaps” between the connecting rod and the front and rear tubes while the connecting rod approaches the front tube and the rear tube. Thus, there is a need for a stroller which addresses these safety issues.